Madeleine Boschan

Schwarze Weisheit IV, 2011

“These early sculptures are composed of disparate found objects. I start with behavioral biology and with an engagement with cultural manifestations: ritualized social structures and subsystems.” (M.B.) Ius primae noctis (the name derives from a medieval term for the right of the lord of the manor to spend the first night with the brides of his serfs) gives a dark form to the history of male dominance. Seen in terms of sexual violation, it is a black varnished shaft that projects aggressively upward into the space, with two ‘heads’ formed from spread blind slats. In Schwarze Weisheit [Black Wisdom], Boschan places an assembled constellation of white-sprayed found objects atop what looks like the base of a lamp – in rather the same way as Duchamp placed a bicycle wheel on a white stool. The title is also a found object: Schwarze Weisheit or ‘black wisdom’ is the name of a brand of cigars, and the title of a book which describes the experiences of a European woman in an African village.